PSSA Accomodations

[Smiley74]

I emailed school to co firm PSSA accommodations as per 504 plan. This is what I got. I haven’t signed the speech IEP annual (not initial placement) and child is currently under another evaluation for different needs unrelated to articulation. 504 has been in place for several years and was unilaterally changed by District back in August, but still has other accommodations included beyond the quiet environment. So my question is does a non signed non initial IEP which contains the 504 accommodations become completely null??

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Unfortunately you have been unable to provide a date and time, at the District's request, to attend a meeting in order to address updating X’s recommended placement and to modify any individualized accompanying documents/plans .  

 

Her most recent IEP was completed when she was not in a grade level for PSSA testing. 

 

As a result, X will participate in testing in her regular education classroom setting.  As with all students she will be provided extended time, and provided breaks as needed.  The classroom environment is designed to be a conducive testing setting with minimal distractions, as all students are participating in the testing. She will be proctored by teacher Y. 

[JSD24]

If you do not sign an annual IEP renewal, the revised IEP goes into effect in 10 days in PA unless you check 'Due Process' on the NOREP.  If you are in Due Process with the school district, the old IEP (the one you agreed to a year+ ago) should be followed.

Since PSSAs start in 3rd, and last year's IEP was for 2nd (my assumption), the box on the IEP for accommodations wasn't checked.  Given this situation, I'd contact the Consult Line (https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/) as this puts accommodations into a gray area.  (This does sound a bit like retaliation for Due Process rather than doing what is best for your child/their student.)

You are right that with a speech only IEP, accommodations would go on a 504.  Since parents are not required members of the 504 team, the school can do as they please with making changes to the 504.  The 504 should be followed but it's not like it has a check box the the PA IEP has for PSSA accommodations.  No reason you can't request a no-meet revision to the 504 and put accommodations for PSSAs on that.  (This is what the school would do if they wanted to help your child.)  The other thing is that PSSA scores aren't all that meaningful.  They are supposed to reflect how good a job the school is doing with teaching your child - not how well your child is doing with learning.  Religious opt out is always an option.  It's a 3-step process.  Templates here for opt out letters:  https://parentsunitedphila.com/opt-out/

[Smiley74]

I have not signed the IEP because I disagreed with it. During that meeting the District did unilaterally remove one 504 accommodation as well. The box for PSSA not in this grade level is checked and the boxes for the specific subject PSSA accommodations were left unchecked.  I’m pretty confident the LEA would not do a no meet revision to add PSSA accommodations as they start Monday.  I put in a call to Consult Line yesterday, but haven’t been called back yet and knowing my timeline was kind of urgent with testing starting, I also posted here.  

I’m dealing with implementation issues on local assessments so in a other email thread I was told today, “The accommodations that are in place were mutually determined and agreed upon, at the time of our team meeting.  The manner in which those accommodations are implemented are not up for debate nor scrutiny.”   I have had ongoing issues all year with the poor implementation of accommodations for local testing, but I feel like I was told today that I don’t get to express my disagreement over implementation. 

As for the PSSA, my biggest annoyance is that my kid would have to be home with me if opted out while testing happens at school for the five days.  

 

 

[JSD24]

Absolutely not.  The school needs to provide instruction for students who are opted out.  Plus, PSSAs generally take 2-3 hours.  Your child could go in late but, under no circumstances, should they miss a full day.  Have her take the test w/o accommodations.  If she can't answer a question, she can guess.  She could make a nice pattern with filling in scantron bubbles if she wants.

It sounds like the school spent time going over the PSSA accommodations at the meeting you had.  Did you put anything in writing on this?  There is a saying in education:  if it's not in writing, it didn't happen.  You need to document soon after the meeting if you don't agree.

IMO, PSSA accommodations should mirror the accommodations given on other tests.  Or they could have added accommodations with it being a longer test.

[Smiley74]

There was never a discussion of PSSAs at any of the meetings we have had on the IEP (which they currently want to exit out of and issued a NOREP for, but are back under a RR for something else which could still result in another speech need).

Opt-out kids would be out half day and then go back in the afternoon.

Other building students with just 504 are being offered wat's in their 504-read aloud, etc.

[Smiley74]

Side note-I never returned with due process checked. I just didn't sign and didn't return.  Had a couple of post meetings with the Special Ed Director directly and some changes were made regarding school day schedules and then those changes were removed by the principal.

[JSD24]

If they never brought up the topic, why are they saying: “The accommodations that are in place were mutually determined and agreed upon, at the time of our team meeting."?  If you had a 504 meeting, the accommodations should apply to all testing including PSSAs.  Also with PSSAs, they can read directions & math problems but not a whole lot on the ELA part.

Not signing & returning the NOREP puts the IEP into place after 10 days/means you agree to terminate sp ed it that was what the NOREP said.

https://adayinourshoes.com/sign-the-iep/

It doesn't hurt your child to 'fail' a PSSA.  PA doesn't retain kids who fail in 3rd grade like other states do.  There is no reason for her to ever see the grade.  Also, under FERPA, you are allowed to clarify what's in your child's records.  You can write a note that says XX took PSSAs in 2023 w/o accommodations despite a 504 which provided accommodations - see attached.

[Smiley74]

The District is fully aware I disagree with the IEP removal as I had provided a parent note to be added into the PLEP section noting we were awaiting  private assessment results and I was ok going down to 30m every other week from 30m weekly as disused as an option early May 2022 with SLP instead of what District put as full exit from service in IEP presented later that month.  The District continued to provide her speech and I just received a progress reports for the third quarter saying she is maintaining in the speech environment.  They issued another NOREP early 2023 (and speech session has been had since) as well exiting from speech, but there was a PTE which covered a different speech area. I didn’t sign that either because I was trying to avoid a ton of meetings until all testing was done.

No clue why they think I was in mutual agreement on 504 accommodations as I asked for accommodations they said no to and they wouldn’t put in all recommendations from private evaluators.  I scrutinize their implementation all the time, but was informed via email I’m no longer allowed to tell them things like the environment free of distractions to the greatest extent possible was actually found to be pretty noisy and distracting.

I just got a late day email and now I am being requested to identify which accommodations would not be being provided in the regular ed PSSA testing environment…I know of no other parent in the building who has been asked to make this justification.